The Compass - eNews from Baltimore Planning

A monthly eNewsletter from the Baltimore City Department of Planning

September 2016

A
Message from the Director…

This month's issue of The Compass highlights the Capital Budget process, and explains why it matters to our City. Our Department wants to demystify this process - read on to learn more about the types of projects funded through capital budgeting; the timeline; and how funding is distributed to projects throughout the City of Baltimore.

This issue also highlights one project, the C.C. Jackson Recreation Center, that received funding through the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) process in recent years. The C.C. Jackson Center touches the lives of many residents on a daily basis. It is a place for community meetings, soccer games, football practice and block parties. The modernization of the Recreation Center is an important long term investment in the Park Heights community.

This September issue also coincides with the start of the School Year - and the culmination of months of work on INSPIRE plans for neighborhoods around several schools in Baltimore City. Keep your eyes open for these plans to be formally adopted by the Planning Commission this fall and winter. And learn more about the INSPIRE planning process on our website.

Deadline to Apply for Green Healthy Smart Challenge is Approaching

The Green, Healthy, Smart Challenge is a grant program for student-led
sustainability projects in Baltimore City Public Schools. Students must
be a part of an organized green team that meets to complete their
project. The aim is to have projects encourage and assist schools in
reaching Maryland Green School Certification.

Planning Department Welcomes New Capital Improvement Program Planner

In August, the Department hired a new Capital Improvement
Planner, Kristen Ahearn.

Kristen joins the department from Johns Hopkins
University’s Center for Government Excellence, where she worked with mid-sized
cities around the country to improve their use of data in decision making.
Prior to that, Kristen worked for the State of Maryland for several years, most
recently at the Maryland Energy Administration.

Kristen will be working with City
departments to prepare the Capital Improvement Plan and monitor ongoing capital
projects.

Sustainability Plan Update - Community Survey Now Open

We are updating our 2009 Sustainability Plan. Since
then much has changed. As we take a fresh look at our plan, we want to
identify a broader definition of what sustainability means, pay greater
attention to issues of equity and inclusion and include more concrete metrics.

We know that one of the best ways to connect with people and learn what they’re
doing and what they need is to empower community leaders. Our
priority in this process and for the plan is to make sure every story and every voice truly counts.

The Planning Department has a new website!

Visit us at: http://planning.baltimorecity.gov/

Subscribe to the Planning Department's e-newsletter by clicking on the image below:

City Prepares for Next Six-Year Capital Funding Cycle

Capital budgeting may call to mind images of accountants
hunched over desks reviewing decimal points and summing rows on a spreadsheet,
but in reality it is an important process relevant to the everyday lives of Baltimore citizens.

Each year, the Planning
Department works with the Mayor’s Office, City agencies, and the Planning
Commission to compile a six-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), which guides
the physical investments made by the City. The CIP results in real, tangible
projects that affect how residents and visitors experience the City, and are critical
to building Baltimore’s future.

The Capital Improvement Plan is made up of
capital projects, which are
long-term investments, usually in physical infrastructure - things like municipal
buildings, streets, sewers, parks, monuments, and bridges. Out of a total budget of $3.1 billion in fiscal
year 2017, $525 million (or 17 percent) was dedicated to capital projects.

The process of preparing the Capital Improvement Plan begins each fall, when the Planning Department solicits requests for projects from
the City’s various agencies. Throughout the winter, the Department works with City
agencies to prioritize project requests. In February, the
Department makes a recommendation to the Planning Commission on which projects
should be funded. Once approved by the Planning Commission, the Capital
Improvement Program is reviewed and approved by the Board of Finance, the Board
of Estimates, and finally City Council, where the first year of recommendations
is adopted into the City’s Ordinance of Estimates as that year’s capital budget.
You can read more about the Capital Improvement Planning process here.

CIP in Action:

C.C. Jackson Recreation Center

The modernized and expanded C.C. Jackson Recreation Center
and athletic fields in the City’s Park Heights neighborhood provide an example
of a project funded through the Capital Improvement Plan. The project was first
recommended as part of the CIP in 2012.

Over the next few years, the Department of Recreation and Parks worked
with designers and contractors to make the renovations, and in June 2016 the
facility was opened to the public. The
expanded center now includes fitness rooms, community space, computer rooms,
and an indoor gym. Outdoors, an athletic complex with new football and baseball
fields, bleachers, and lighting was developed in partnership with the Ripken
Baseball Foundation. The park was also improved with the addition of a new
playground, parking facility, basketball court, and circulation path.

Like many
capital projects, funding came from a variety of sources. The total cost for
the project was $7.4 million, with just over half coming from city fund sources
such as general obligation bonds and local impact aid. These city funds were
used to leverage other fund sources, including state and private foundation
grants. The project grew from the strategies included in the Mayor’s Recreation
and Parks Task Force Implementation Plan and provides a great example of how
the CIP allows the city to invest strategically in its neighborhoods,
businesses, and residents.

This
is the first part in a two-part series on the Capital Improvement Plan. In next
month’s Compass, learn how you can take part in building Baltimore’s future by
voting “FOR” Bond Questions A-D in November!

Office of Sustainability Partners with Rec & Parks on Urban Wood Reclamation Program

This fall will see the official launch of the Camp Small
Zero Waste Initiative, a wood reclamation project carried out in
partnership between BCRP’s Forestry Division and the Office of Sustainability.
The initiative targets wood waste brought daily to Camp Small, the City’s wood
debris storage yard. Instead of paying contractors to chip and haul away
this material every several months, the agencies have teamed up to create a
plan to sort out the valuable wood material, and make it available to the
public for purchase. This program will save taxpayer dollars while also
creating a new supply of unique ‘urban wood’ products, including saw-logs,
mulches, and specialty woods.

The project is made possible by a loan from the City’s
Innovation Fund. The Innovation Fund is managed by the Bureau of the Budget and
Management Research (BBMR) and provides seed money for one-time investments
that will lead to improved results, increased revenue, and/or reduced ongoing
operating costs for City services. A loan of $98,000 has enabled the Forestry
Division to hire the first ever Camp Small Yard Master, and rent mulch
screening equipment to improve and distribute ‘legacy mulch’ left at the site
from previous seasons.

The hallmark of this project, however, will be the
log-sorting operation to receive, grade and sell eligible logs to private
sawmills – reducing the cost to the City for log chipping and creating a new
source of revenue that is anticipated to support the cost of the Camp Small
Yard Master position. The first log auction is scheduled to take place in
mid-September 2016.